|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Lang resigns position H.S. coach at center of allegations leaves school system
Updated: Friday February 09, 2001 5:49 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Lynn Lang, the former high school coach accused of soliciting $200,000 to steer a star player to the University of Alabama, has resigned as an employee of the Memphis City Schools. In a statement released to The Commercial Appeal Thursday, Lang said he has sent a letter of resignation to Superintendent Johnnie B. Watson, officially ending his five-year stint at the school. He had been stripped of his coaching job last week because of an another unrelated investigation. "The decision to resign was difficult and painful for me, but it was the best thing for Trezevant and its athletic program," Lang wrote. "... I felt that regardless of what happens to me, my presence would overshadow all of the positive accomplishments of the football team as well as the academic efforts of the school as a whole." Lang had been suspended with pay since Jan. 10, the day his former assistant coach, Milton Kirk, went public with allegations of soliciting money to influence player Albert Means in his choice of college. Kirk has said he told NCAA investigators that Lang was paid $6,000 for getting Means to pay an official visit to the University of Kentucky and that he asked for $200,000 to get the young player to sign a letter of intent with the University of Alabama. Means went on to play at Alabama, but left the school after Kirk implicated Lang in the recruiting scheme. Means, who did not know about the alleged deal, is attending the University of Memphis. On Friday, The Birmingham News quoted Kirk as saying that Lang also offered Means to Auburn, but Auburn declined it. Kirk said he wasn't present when the deal was offered, but Lang told him that he told Auburn offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone that he'd get Means and teammate Leonard Burress to sign with Auburn in exchange for two Ford Expeditions and $100,000 cash. Lang has denied any wrongdoing. "He is resigning," Lang's lawyer A C Wharton Jr. said. "But he stands by his denials." In addition to the NCAA, the allegations are being investigated by the Southeastern Conference, the FBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Memphis district attorney and the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. Those ongoing probes contributed to Lang's decision to resign, his attorney said, because fighting termination by the school would have required the former coach to attend a public hearing and make statements that investigators might try to use against him. "The public will say, 'If you haven't done anything wrong, then how can something be used against you?' But I've been around a long time, and I've seen a lot of people who were at least accused of things -- now they were later acquitted -- but they were put through that on the basis of statements that would have been better off left unsaid," Wharton said. Meanwhile, Means' mother, Felicia Means, said Kirk told her that Lane told boosters that part of the $200,000 to get her son to sign with Alabama would go to the family. The family got no money, however, and knew nothing about any deal, attorney Claiborne H. Ferguson said. Ms. Means, a single mother of six who makes $6.25 an hour as a day care worker, appeared at an eviction hearing Friday because she owes $3,000 in rent. A Memphis judge gave her one week to collect the money. Kirk, now an assistant coach at another school, says he took part in arranging the payoff from unnamed Alabama boosters but says he got none of the money. He remains on suspension from the school board during the investigation. Kirk told The Birmingham News that a man who said he represented Memphis businessman and Alabama booster Logan Young helped broker the deal. He did not name the man. Young denies giving any money to Lang. He told The News, "Milton Kirk is a liar." Kirk said he grew concerned about the Means family when it became obvious that Lang did not intend to help them financially. Trezevant Principal Ben Greene said he fired Lang as coach because of suspected high school recruiting violations dating to 1997, not because of the Alabama allegations. "The decision was based on inaccurate information on eligibility forms" for the TSSAA, Greene said.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
